Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Opportunities: Calls for Entry

Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress ArtDeadline: April 22, 2011

Minnesota Center for Book Arts seeks work to be included in an artist
book exhibition titled “Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art.”
The exhibition will show at MCBA from July 8 to October 16, 2011, and
will then tour nationally. The selected works may continue traditions
in literary and typographical primacy, or they may challenge ideas
about craft or explore interests in content, materials and structure.

All formats are welcome within the expansive understanding of “book”
today, as long as the letterpress medium has been used. There is no
entry or participation fee. Selected artists will be responsible for
shipping and insurance costs to and from MCBA. While on view, all work
will be fully insured and presented in secure cases (unless other
installation instructions are specified). During the tour, host sites
will pay for shipping as well as insurance both in transit and on
site.

To be considered, email the following to Jeff Rathermel, MCBA’s
Executive Director (jrathermel@mnbookarts.org):

1. A one-page Word or PDF document containing name of artist(s),
mailing address, email address, telephone number, title of work,
materials used, measurements of the work, any special installation
instructions and any other descriptive information you feel necessary
to fully appreciate the work.

2. Up to three digital images (72 dpi) per work. Multiple entries are
allowed but should be sent as separate emails.

Place “LETTERPRESS” in the subject line of your email.

Email entries must be received by April 22, 2011.

Selected artists will be notified no later than May 13, 2011. Work
must arrive no later than June 3, 2011 and will be returned no later
September 27, 2013.

***

The Artistic Rebuttal Book Project
Deadline: May 15, 2011

Amy Scheidegger, a local artist, turns a frustrating conversation she overheard on the subway into an art project.

The press release is as follows:

The other day, I was horribly disturbed by a conversation between eight TOTALLY smart and better-than-everyone-undergraduates, which I overheard in the Philadelphia subway on the way to the theater in which I work as a prop painter. The conversation....what I heard before I exited the subway car so my head wouldn’t explode….went a little like this:
"Art is, like, the most worthless degree anyone can get. Like, haha, they have a degree in making shit with popsicle sticks and string."

Now I'm not naïve, I realize that this really is what some people think about art who don't live artistic lives, but people this young? I thought the youth of this country were more appreciative of art as a lifestyle and a valid career choice. Their sentiments enraged me, and what I have realized about myself is that it usually takes a bout of anger to get me moving. So, in artistic fashion, I want to make a book full of rebuttals to the "art is worthless" debate. That is to say, a book full of "Oh yeah! Art is worthless? Take this!" But with a bit more research and validity, of course.

With this idea, I sent out a mass email/facebook event to somewhere around 600 people to see how many artists (of the visual, performing, musical and written word persuasion), arts administrators and arts appreciators would want to contribute their own rebuttal, and it snowballed from their. As of now, about 1,300 artists have been contacted and 50 confirmed in coming together to make their own statements about the importance of art, where art is hiding that the normal non-artist doesn't see and/or statistics about how much money is spent in any art-related field on any local/state/national level.

Now, a book like this, which is directed towards people who aren't art-centric, won't achieve its ultimate goal of convincing non-art appreciators that art is essential to life, if it's only passed back and forth between artists, so a marketing plan to get it in front of people outside of our "bubble" is in the works. Anyone with any advice on how to do so or has leads would be greatly appreciated.

Art is too important to let conversations like this one be ignored. I don't want the people running this country when I'm old and can’t lift my hand to paint any more to not appreciate what I dedicated my entire life to. I would feel like I hadn't accomplished anything.

Entries can be of any medium, sized 9" x 7". They can be emailed, at atleast 300dpi, to amyscheidegger@gmail.com. They are due on May 15th and the book will be self published shortly thereafter.

Anyone who is interested in contributing to the book, knows of a place where this book can find a home, or has any questions, can contact me at amyscheidegger@gmail.com.

Sebastopol (CA) Center for the Arts is sponsoring a national juried artist book/book arts exhibition from June 16 to July 23, 2011. Juror will be Sas Colby. Deadline to submit up to 3 entries is May 31. Prospectus may be downloaded at: sebarts.org (click on "call for entry," and then "Bibliophoria II").